People
Against All Odds
by SARABJIT PANDHER
Chandigarh, Punjab
Overwhelmed by a deluge of accolades for clearing the civil services examinations, Sandeep Kaur, daughter of a peon, acknowledges the major role played by newspapers in her success.
"I did not miss any article on the Edit page as well as in the Opinion section," the civil engineering graduate from the Punjab Engineering College told this correspondent.
As her family resources were limited, Sandeep never opted for any formal coaching for the civil services examinations, in which she had not succeeded in a previous attempt. She chose Sociology and Punjabi literature as her subjects for the civil services examinations, in which she was ranked 138th this year.
For nearly five years, she had followed the guidelines given by her teachers, seniors and friends. "But the most important factor in my preparations was a thorough reading of [the daily newspaper], which provided a proper insight into current affairs, national and international developments."
Sandeep Kaur's father or her cousin Jaspreet Singh would travel nearly 20 km by bus to get her a copy of the newspaper from an agent at Kharar town.
"The agent was kind enough to keep copies for a few days, in case we could not collect them," she recalled, adding that interviews by successful candidates and advice by her teachers led her to reading the newspapers regularly.
While the Punjab government plans to use her success in its fight against female foeticide, Sandeep says she is prepared to serve anywhere in the country. Poverty eradication and equal opportunities for all will remain her priorities, avers the eldest of the three siblings, whose father, Ranjit Singh, is employed in the sub-tehsil office at Morinda, about 30 km from here.
[Courtesy: The Hindu newspaper]
May 13, 2010
Conversation about this article
1: Satvir Kaur (Boston, MA, U.S.A.), May 13, 2010, 8:18 AM.
Congratulations to Sandeep Kaur and her family!
2: Gurmeet Kaur (Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.), May 13, 2010, 9:00 AM.
So proud of you, Biba ji. You and your likes will make the subcontinent a better place. Don't give an inch when you transition into the sea of corruption that is the Indian Civil Service today. Fight like a devil, as you did to secure your place for a change.
3: N. Singh (Canada), May 13, 2010, 11:28 AM.
Congratulations to Sandeep Kaur! I find it upsetting that the journalist would refer to another human being in a major newspaper as a 'peon'! If I understand the word correctly it is disrespect and not worthy of this journalist who by his/ her name appears to be a Sikh! Again, another example of the pollution of India steeps into the Sikh people through having to live in that caste-ridden society!
4: Gur Singh (Boston, U.S.A.), May 13, 2010, 12:03 PM.
Well, to begin with, let me first congratulate Sandeep as she seems to be one of the rarest of rare candidates who actually deserved 'reservation' in India. Most of the 'special" candidates - known as 'SC/ OBC' in India - who actually avail these benefits do it on the share of the economically poor category for political reasons that need not be explained here. Let me give you an example: there is another girl in the same list: her rank is 114 (higher than Sandeep) and she is the daughter of an uneducated farmer too who just owned 2 acres of land (which was sold when he had a road-side accident) as all his three kids were students. She has cracked the same exam, not once but now consecutively for the fourth time (which is the maximum no. of attempts for the general category candidates). In her first attempt, Aman missed the final list by 5-6 marks, the next time she was ranked in 300s, then 203 and now 114. Unfortunately, she will never be able to make it into the IAS and will remain an IPS (which was not her final dream, though). Most of the candidates that will get IAS at the expense of Aman's seat are from economically well off families. Let me add one more line as why Sandeep's case is being take up by the Times of India (which, no doubt, is the Govt of India's mouthpiece) and not Aman's, as the govt wants to do propaganda explaining the fairness of its wrong policies to perpetrate the caste system. I have no doubt that Sandeep would have made it into the final list if there was a just system of affirmative action on the basis of economical status of the family and not on the caste system.
5: Jasbir Singh Sethi (Houston, Texas, U.S.A.), May 13, 2010, 1:04 PM.
Wow! Finally a brave Sikh Girl has really followed the path of love of reading. Most of our most young people give importance to "sophisticated modern tools", but the real thing is "Love of Learning". The same applies to Sikhs all over the world. My heartiest congratulations to her. She is also my Alumni (I am also a Civil Engineering Graduate from Punjab Engineering College- 1956 Graduating Class).